


Arbitrary Rules, Doctor Who Editions

by Ferith12



Series: Arbitrary Rules [3]
Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-30
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:21:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24773050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ferith12/pseuds/Ferith12
Series: Arbitrary Rules [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1790317
Comments: 2
Kudos: 1





	1. Table of Contents

2\. The Doctor, on the nature of life and time, 490 words

3\. Rory Williams, waiting beside the pandorica, 201 words

4\. Oswin Oswald, Surviving among daleks, 121 words


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Doctor Who and #1, Write something only using words that are one syllable long (Names don't count)
> 
> I'm honestly really proud of this one

Life does not stop. It goes and goes and goes, and you can’t make it still, can’t keep it, can’t look back. Time is this big ball of stuff, it does not keep to a line, it bleeds and makes a mess of its course. The lines of time branch out and join and there’s no sense to it. You can jump back in time, or rush on and leave the past you have yet to meet, see those you lost once more or meet those you could not reach the slow way.

But life flows but one way.

One self has one past, and if that past is ten years gone or a week from next, it makes no change. Life goes on, one thing, one thing more. Cause and what comes of it can’t break, can’t be run back or turned from down to up. Your choice is your choice still, and if you have the luck or are mad to the point that you can change what comes of it, it does not change the tale of your mind. Life is a road, and it may curve and loop back, cross where it once was, but it is a road that can’t be trod the same way twice.

The Doctor is so, so old now, his mind goes back a long, long ways. He has seen time, from the first day to the last, but there is still so great a span in the midst of them of times he has not reached. Life has one start and one end. The start is set on the sphere of Gallifrey, the end can’t be known. There is a joy in such lack of sight, but it can be drowned in the tale of past years, held in by the mind’s bars, so much is known, and so much lost and so much missed that new things scarce have room to fit. 

But life goes on, it can’t stop, can’t be helped, does not slow or trip or fall. The Doctor goes on, holds the weight of his past, yes, holds it close and dear. But life goes on and the Doctor runs, his face does not point back. He’ll turn and look, for a brief beat of his hearts, in sad thought of things loved and lost, but the next step goes on towards the next day, the next world, the next time the next love, the next loss, and he does not lose the will to laugh, to love, to meet new things, new friends, and keep them in his heart as what is turns to what was. The worlds and skies, and all the times they hold in them, are too vast to count, and each is so full of joys and tears and hopes, none are the same as the last and all of them shine bright as stars, and the Doctor runs on to meet them.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rory Williams and #8, write something without using pronouns referring to people.

It was a clear night in November, and the Last Centurion sat silently beside his box. The stars were bright in the sky above, and the air was still. Anyone else might have been cold, ice glittered in the starlight where puddles had frozen over, but the living plastic soldier could not feel the chill.

The Centurion had expected it to be boring, and it was, it was. Time seemed to drag, until the silent watcher got so used to the slowness that it seemed to speed up again and pass by unnoticed. Rome had fallen, it seemed, all at once. History moved on. Things changed, and the lonely soldier stayed the same.

But it was nice, too, the waiting. Peaceful. Night, most of all. The Last Centurion watched the stars turn slowly, slowly, night by night, and marked each one that blinked out. The world was still so huge and bright, at least for now, but this was still the center.

The world turned, the universe darkened, time moved on, too swiftly and too slowly to count, and still the guardian of the Pandorica stood watch. One day it would open, and when it did Rory Williams would be waiting.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clara Oswald and #9, Write something only using sentences that are ten (10) words or less

It’s another day, another hour, another start. Pick up the broken pieces, don’t lose heart. Things will turn out right in the end, she’s sure. If they don’t, it’s good enough for now.

She’s Oswin Oswald, she has it handled.

Watch the cameras. Prank some daleks. Take a break. Burn Souffle. Rinse, repeat, it’s another day.

Does she hope? Well, that’s a question. She doesn’t despair, and that’s the point of it. She doesn’t think. No, she does plenty of thinking, she’s very clever. Of course she thinks. But not about that. Not about this. Not about…

One day at a time. Everything will be alright, she knows it. And if it isn’t? She’ll just have to worry about it then.


End file.
